Rose D'souza, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Class of 2012

Changes and Old People Talk

Friend: It went well, I should know whether I want to buy or rent by next month.

Me: That’s great. By the way, do you whether you prefer a RRSP or a tax free savings account?

Friend: Depends on what you’re looking for.

Me: Well, I was talking to my financial advisor a few days ago and…..

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Hold up, when did “Old People Talk” creep into everyday conversations with my friends? Mortgages, mutual funds, and tax free savings accounts. Last year, those three terms were foreign to me. I heard about them but I filed that under the “Old People Talk” category because I was in grad school in New York City, dammit, and I didn’t have to worry about those boring issues.

A year later, I am old(er). I feel old(er). And I didn’t come to that realization because it’s the end of the year. Rather, it came to me this week after I had an appointment with a financial advisor (who must have been around my age, mid-20 something) and with a friend who is planning on buying a condo.

When did my friends and I enter the “Old People Talk” stage? When did I start messing with my system if I made the risky move of going to sleep after 11pm on a weekday? When did I start needing to ice my knees when they became creaky? When did reminiscing about the good old high school days meant talking about the previous decade, during the early 2000s?

I think I’ve finally accepted the fact that at 25 years old, I’m officially part of a new age bracket found under a form’s demographic section. Gulp.

But, as part of processing and learning from these changes, I will soon start blogging about personal finance or as I’d like to refer to it, “The Year I Smartened Up, Cut Down My 100K Debt and Became An Adult.”

More to come…

For now, though, it’s almost 10pm on a Wednesday night and I need to sleep.